Nothing to suggest. This is a geek message board... let's stay geeks! Geeks <3 Games, Comics and TV. Actually... I PM'ed Ryan Scott the day the boards went live asking for a music and off topic board and he professed his disdain for off topic boards so... yeah, I think he's right. Off Topic so we can... talk about NFL and boobs... both things are what geeks will never experience (had to make the joke).

I PM'ed Ryan Scott as well, inquiring about an off topic forum, and got the same disdain as KindGalaxy.

I think an off topic forum is worth a shot. Comic, games, television and movies... these are all things geeks love, but they're not the only things, and not all geeks even love all those things. There are geeks who love sports (if you don't think fantasy sports is a geeky past time, please, its role playing). There are geeks who love all manner of books, not just those found in the Sci-Fi/Fantasy/Manga/Graphic Novel section at the bookstore. And what geek doesn't love the newest electronics and gadgets? Where can these things be discussed?

I think these forums have been great so far, but the true test of civility on the internets is an off topic forum. Can the Geekbox community make one work?

"The only true currency in this bankrupt world is what you share with someone else when you're uncool." - Almost Famous

I think it would be good to expand the profiles with a biography section. Right now it feels kinda empty as if there´s a huge gap missing in the "Contact" section. And it would also make it a lot more interesting.

It would also be cool to have different titles or ranks like Ryan has ("Hell yeah!"). But so far the boards are awesome!

Great thread, guys -- thanks for the suggestions! I will definitely monitor this thread for good ideas. I've also stickied this thread for now.

Some specific things:

James-Kond wrote:Yeah, General or 'off-topic' would be nice, also, Music anyone?

If I see enough rabid demand for this stuff, maaaaaaaaaybe. I'm REALLY hesitant to delve into 'Off-topic' territory, because those types of subforums are always total train wrecks in my experience (anyone remember 1UP Non-Gaming Related?), and I'm not interested in moderating the frequent flame wars that I know they'll provoke. I've also always been of the mind that people patronize a forum to talk about the specific subject matter at hand, and 'Off-topic' flies in the face of that.

Melvilles Fist wrote:Love the forums so far.

Could we get some link that say "Last post by..." and then the forum member name? When we click it, it will jump to the latest post. Kinda tedious to scroll, scroll, scroll.

Thanks, guys!

There actually is a little icon next to the newest poster's name to the right of each topic in the forum. You can click that to go to the latest post. It's probably not very obvious; just a quirk of the theme I'm using. I'm sure I'll get around to changing some of the stock images at some point.

Mechar wrote:I think it would be good to expand the profiles with a biography section. Right now it feels kinda empty as if there´s a huge gap missing in the "Contact" section. And it would also make it a lot more interesting.

It would also be cool to have different titles or ranks like Ryan has ("Hell yeah!"). But so far the boards are awesome!

I just added in fields for profile, XBLA Gamertag, PSN User ID, Wii Friend Code, and Steam ID -- enjoy! And, yeah, I'd like to implement some fun ranks that are controlled by total post counts. I just need to come up with a creative theme for them.

I'd second the 'off-topic' forum idea. But in order to stop it degenerating into a mess, make it so members cannot make new topic and just have set topics such as Books, Sports, Music, etc. It'd be easier to moderate atleast.

Rydog wrote:I'm REALLY hesitant to delve into 'Off-topic' territory, because those types of subforums are always total train wrecks in my experience (anyone remember 1UP Non-Gaming Related?), and I'm not interested in moderating the frequent flame wars that I know they'll provoke.

I'm sure you could find people willing to moderate, if you were worried about spending too much time yourself...

An off-topic/general discussion forum would be great. I post often at another gaming forum and the general discussion is usually the most active part of the site. Other suggestions, it would be cool if you could create polls.

See, as long as the forums are properly moderated, and people are reprimanded for being dicks to each other, then no topic should be "banned". As long as people have informed things to say on a subject, then they should be encouraged to add to the community dialogue.

Politics in general is a very "geeky" subject, with a good amount of carryover into the gaming community. It would be sad if this community shied away from it. Maybe a separate off topic forum just called "News and Politics" or something like that.

All that you are really implying is that people get too passionate about these subjects, and their level of rhetoric can become too severe, leading to other people getting offended, so just establish base rules in those forums for civilized discussion. As long as you can get a good moderator to do the job, I don't see why this would be a bad idea.